The N.F.L. has suspended Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross and taken away two draft picks after an investigator found that the team violated the league’s anti-tampering policy by trying to lure quarterback Tom Brady and former head coach Sean Payton to Miami.
At the same time, the investigator, former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, found no evidence that Ross had ordered the team’s former head coach, Brian Flores, to deliberately lose games to improve its standing in the college draft, claims Flores made in a federal lawsuit in February.
White determined that Ross’s offer to pay Flores $100,000 for each game the lost — one of the most inflammatory claims in his lawsuit — “was not intended or taken to be a serious offer, nor was the subject pursued in any respect by Mr.